Going out empty

tony
July 9, 2017
Black&White / New Zealand / Street / travel

I hadn’t been looking for colour images but some found me.

Yesterday was a great example of going out empty. This is a term Jay Maisel uses to describe avoiding preconceptions or expectations when going out to photograph and conveys the concept well. Go out empty, look carefully and be receptive to what you encounter. Friday night’s forecast was for a wet weekend so it was a pleasant surprise to wake to at sunny Saturday. After a couple of hours in the forest on my bicycle we headed to Taupo for lunch. Always a good trip, it is a scenic drive not far from home. As always a Fuji camera went with. It’s a toss up between the compactness of the X100s and the flexibilty of the XT1 with a few lenses in an old Tamrac shoulder bag but yesterday the XT1 won out.

The first photo I took catching some of the Taupo street scene. A couple having a takeaway meal beneath a large dry fly sculpture and a panel celebrating the New Zealand Triathlon. Superman and The Hulk breaking free from the Cinema complex.

Part of the fun of street photography is wondering what you will find but I tend to look for images that will work in Black and White exploring reflections and people, trying to catch some layers in an image that can convey a message beyond the visual elements. The town was fairly quiet and nothing much was happening along the lines of what I was hoping for but, keeping an open mind and especially eyes open to see and not only look, I found some images drenched in colour down an alley. On emerging from the alley, I found a picture along the lines of what I had originally been looking for and then a tree of birds.